


Skills Competition

by Brightki



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hockey, F/M, Hermione is a hockey player, Hockey, Skills Competition Meet Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 16:55:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14549184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brightki/pseuds/Brightki
Summary: Draco thought it was a joke when they told him he'd be going face to face with a US women's hockey player in a skills competition. She saw right through him.





	Skills Competition

**Author's Note:**

  * For [provocative_envy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/provocative_envy/gifts).



> WELL, HERE WE GO AGAIN. More hockey AU for you all. Love to Envy for putting up with/encouraging the hockey nonsense.

When Draco first heard that he was going on the ice against a woman hockey player in a skills competition as part of some event (and extra positive publicity), he laughed.

 

When the GM and his agent and Coach and Warrsy and even fucking Flintwood - he hated those two assholes and their nickname, but they were never apart from each other, not since juniors, and the name just  _ stuck _ \- all told him it was definitely happening, the tweets had already gone out after the first meeting… he stopped laughing.

 

Draco Malfoy, first-year all-star out the gate from his number one draft, going up against some women's hockey player in a series of on the ice drills for  _ publicity _ ? He was royally pissed off and for multiple reasons:

 

1) He needed the time to rest up before the playoff run, and running himself ragged against a woman was completely the opposite of “resting up.”

 

2) He  _ couldn’t  _ run himself really ragged, but especially against a woman. Going all out and really pushing it, he’d demolish her and that would look terrible.

 

3) There was definitely a third reason, but he couldn’t think of it, and Warrington was going to kill him if he didn’t do it, and there’d go  _ any _ hope of an A on his sweater before Warrsy retired, probably.

 

So that was how Draco found himself hunched over his tablet on the couch a few nights after the announcement, Googling one Hermione Granger.

 

Growing up in Minnesota, her dad - a former if brief NHL player turned dentist - had put Granger in youth hockey after she’d complained about figure skating being “too restricting to the girl skaters.” ( _ Who the hell talks like that at six?? _ , Draco couldn’t help but think scornfully, though he also happened to agree. Few knew he’d started out with figure skating before making the change to hockey, around the same age as Hermione, but with less well-defined arguments.) She’d been at home on the ice and had held her own well, climbing through the leagues until she found herself on the gold-winning US Women’s team.

 

After finishing her Wikipedia article, he finds himself on YouTube, watching video after video. ( _ It’s all for research _ , he tells himself.) On the ice, she’s polished and ruthlessly efficient, wasting little movement, everything contained within one hockey package. 

 

The helmet-less pictures, mostly promotional and touring photos post-Olympic gold, show something else entirely: wild curls hanging heavily around her blue-clad shoulders, freckles across creamy cheeks, and a too wide, too perfect smile. Pretty enough that he pauses on one particular picture of her with some teammates on Instagram. ( _ How did I even get here? _ , he wonders.)

 

And they were facing each other on the ice in three weeks.

 

.oOo.

 

As the weeks passed, Draco began to relax. This  _ could _ have been a nightmare, but it also was a perfect excuse to show off his skills in a low pressure situation, and possibly launch himself closer to the A earlier than anticipated.

 

He followed her on Twitter first. She accepted and followed him back almost immediately. It’s another two days before she tweeted him first, not that he was expecting any exchange whatsoever.

 

  
Hermione Granger @hgranger19 

@malfoyprince Hey! Looking forward to our face off! Can’t wait to compare skates. :))

 

D M 10 Prince @malfoyprince

Replying to @hgranger19 yeah definitely should be interesting

  
  


Maybe it was his utter carelessness (or lack of punctuation), but she didn’t tweet him again until right before the skills competition.

  
  


Two days before they meet face to face for the first time, and three days before the skills competition, she tweeted again.

 

Hermione Granger @hgranger19

@malfoyprince Three days to go! Hope you’re ready!

 

D M 10 Prince @malfoyprince

Replying to @hgranger19 my skates are already laced up

  
  


( _ That must make getting around difficult _ , she thought to herself with a laugh.)

 

.oOo.

 

When they meet face to face for the first time, Draco had to admit that he might have lost it a little. She swept into the small conference room where they’d be having their meet up and press conference luncheon, swirling in loose curls and the scent of coconut and ice, and his mouth opened and “I hope you’re ready to get creamed.” came tumbling out.

 

Brown eyes turned up to meet icy blue, wide and sparkling. “I’ve been watching your videos, some interviews.”

 

“Like what you see?”

 

“It’s not bad. Your deke could use some polish, and you get really jumpy in the blue zone. You’re good and will be better, but don’t let my opinion get to your head. You have a few more years before the C.” Her voice was even, neither aggressive nor hesitant, as though she were stating simple facts. Because she  _ was _ , he couldn’t help the scowl that slipped across his face. 

 

“See, you’re getting upset, despite knowing I’m right.” The little smile that tugged her mouth infuriated him, as much as it also kind of settled him. It was  _ knowing _ , but the kind of self-acknowledged ‘yeah, me too’ smile parents gave other parents when their kid was mid-tantrum at Costco in the check out line. Or of another hockey player who was also too good and knew it, but can’t do much about it (yet).

 

He paused, then, eyes locked on hers, surveying one another for a moment. Then he smiled rather sheepishly and stepped closer to her, holding out a hand. “Draco Malfoy, center.”

 

Looking surprised, she reached out and took his much larger hand, ignoring the warm tingle of skin-on-skin contact. She had stick calluses on her palm, exactly the same as his. “Hermione Granger, right winger.”

 

They sat together for the luncheon, chatting in between eating, and stayed put while the press conference went on around them. Amazingly (or not, if you think about it), only one journalist took the friendly chat angle while the rest went with one antagonizing the other (depending on which source you read, each position was swapped, despite none of them having a single photo of the two looking anything but content).

 

Before they went their separate ways, around an hour later, Hermione grasped his hand again and stepped a little closer, the heat from her body radiating through his suit. “I’m not going to go easy on you tomorrow; don’t disappoint me.” 

 

Draco looked down at her in surprise, before a cocky expression settled on his pointy features and he squeezed her hand, just enough. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll give you everything I’ve got.”

 

.oOo.

 

Hermione won the overall award, ultimately. Leading off with a three to one shootout race, she just couldn’t best him at the speed drills - she didn’t have the leg power. But because of her smaller size, she had the advantage of maneuverability ( _ and _ the puck skills, not that he wanted to admit it to anyone else) to best him in the puck relay by a solid second and a half. They came close to equal in the timed target shooting, with Draco edging her out by a few points of a second, but the accuracy shooting was hilariously bad for them both, with Hermione beating his time by a wide margin, though with nothing to brag about herself.

 

Skating in together to the center rink, they shared a grin through the ice-speckled visors of their helmets before waving at the crowd in the stands. They were ushered off not long after, as the arena staff began clearing the set up on the ice for some fan-in-a-bubble challenge that came an hour later.

 

Tugging his helmet off and sweeping his sweaty hair from his face, Draco turned and looked down at Hermione. When she took her helmet off and he saw where she had severely braided her hair back to keep it contained, he let out all of his breath in a whoosh. They were both sweaty and flushed from exertion, though cooling rapidly in the confines of the rink.

 

“Want to get some coffee?” The words were out before Draco completed the thought. There were usually the post-competition interviews, meeting with their agents and trainers, before even getting to showering and dressing, but none of that was really necessary this time around, right?

 

Her grin was wide and blinding and he felt like he was on the ice again. “Yeah. Definitely. Should be interesting.”


End file.
